Tony sickfic

Chapter 17

instinctively. Gibbs didn't even see the fist coming towards him till it was too late and it had connected with his face.

Gibbs jumped back and put his hand to his face. Tony was awake now and aware of what he'd just done. The door was still open and Beth witnessed the whole thing from the nurse's station just outside Tony's room. She hurried towards them.

"Oh, God, Boss."

Tony looked at Gibbs holding his hand over his eye and began to cry.

"Special Agent Gibbs, are you okay?" Beth asked.

"I'm fine," Gibbs assured her, walking over to Tony. "Tony, don't worry, I'm fine." He gathered Tony against him, hugging him tight. His eye was beginning to darken and swell, but Tony was all that mattered right now. "Tony, relax, I'm fine. I should have known better than to grab you."

"Boss," Tony said, still crying over hitting Gibbs.

"Tony, look at me." Gibbs put both hands on Tony's shoulders. Tony was looking down, but Gibbs wasn't having any of that. "Tony," he said again, trying to get Tony to look at him, finally putting a hand under Tony's chin and lifting it till their gazes met.

"Boss, I'm sorry."

Gibbs shook his head. "Tony, you didn't mean to do this. Don't think twice about it, okay?"

With the combination of the illness, the drugs in his system, and hitting Gibbs, Tony couldn't seem to stop crying.

"Tony, come on, it's okay."

Tony nodded. Gibbs put the guardrail down. Beth was still in the doorframe, making sure everything was okay.

Gibbs took Tony in his arms again and hugged him, making sure not to bother Tony's IV and the other wires attached to him. Tony fell into the hug, more like melted into it. Gibbs sat on the edge of the bed, wanting to get as close as possible.

Beth, seeing that the men were taking care of each other, walked out of the room smiling and closed the door behind her. Those two men were good together.

Tony managed to stop crying and was just breathing in the scent of Gibbs. Gibbs could tell Tony was falling asleep in his arms. He let Tony lean on him, still careful of the IVs and wires.

At about 9:00 AM the phone rang.

Gibbs quickly picked it up. "Gibbs."

Tony woke up, stirring and mumbling, rubbing his face against Gibbs' shirt.

"Shh, go back to sleep," Gibbs said before turning his attention back to the person on the other end of the phone. He listened, then said, "Yes, send them up."

"Who was that?"

"Security. You have a couple of visitors."

"Who?"

"Someone who wants to surprise you. They wanted to make sure you were awake and up to visitors."

"Cool, hope they brought me a gift," Tony said around a yawn, smiling and still leaning against Gibbs.

Five minutes later there was a lovely middle-aged lady and a ten-year-old girl standing in the doorway.

"Monica, Jenny, come in," Tony said with pleasure when he saw who was there to see him.

Exhausted from his night of waking Tony every thirty minutes and from not having had near enough coffee for the day, Gibbs had fallen asleep in the few minutes it took the visitors to come up. He woke up after Tony said something and tried to get out from under Tony where he was snuggled against him, but Tony wasn't having any of that.